Professor of Human Resource Management at Aston University and Visiting Scholar UC Berkeley
Unsustainable levels of burnout and intention to leave among primary care physicians (PCPs) are widely recognised – but responses haven’t yet addressed the excessive job demands that underpin these trends and contribute to the time scarcity that PCPs experience day-to-day. This time scarcity is problematic for patients too. This paper explores how time constrained PCPs identify and address patient safety issues and high-risk situations in five types of patient care episodes: high-risk social situations, high-risk medication regimens requiring patient education, high acuity conditions requiring immediate workup or treatment, interactions of physical and mental health, and investigating more subtle clinical suspicions. PCPs detailed how taking extra time during these visits changed their clinical management. The findings make clear the importance of ensuring sufficient slack in scheduling to enable PCPs to respond to patient care episodes that are time sensitive, time intensive or require flexibility. Well-designed jobs that provide sufficient time during appointments matter for patients and providers. https://lnkd.in/gM5eNATT Such a pleasure to work with Shannon Satterwhite, Michelle-Linh Nguyen, Vlad Honcharov, MPH & Urmimala Sarkar MD MPH and thanks to The Commonwealth Fund for their support for my time during my Harkness Fellowship
Analysis of my fellowship data led by Shannon Satterwhite, MD PhD (UC Davis Family Medicine) and Aoife M. McDermott. In sharing these findings, we hope to raise the voices of frontline primary care physicians, giving voice to the time and skill that they donate to keep their patients safe and healthy in the face of unfriendly systemic/structural circumstances. Please contact me directly for a full version of the paper. https://lnkd.in/g7dKBXCn cc: National Clinician Scholars Program, The Patient Revolution, Inc.
Jono Hoogerbrug
7mo
Great work here, and from my experience - bang on. One of the great challenges of how to build slack into the system and/or triage/planning for appointments to ensure patients have the time they need.
Sally Lewis
7mo
Very much looking forward to reading this Aoife. Thank you 🙏
Raj Behal MD MPH
7mo
Thanks for sharing this important work Aoife M. McDermott. Having more time and more of that time free of distractions matters to patients.
Healthcare Consultant and Patient Advocacy Leader, passionate about person centred care.
7moThe simplest of things make the biggest difference. The most obvious thing is in these scenarios time was given to listen to people.